CR 337 —Taking it to the Nth Metal Degree in DCUO

I'm continuing my daily grind in DCUO and playing with Team Spode on Sunday nights. There are still a few pieces of gear I need to buy to complete my set for this expansion, but for the most part I'm just going with the flow.  In other words, I log in, I do my dailies, and I log out.  

However, lately I've been a bit more focused on raising my artifacts, and I can already see the results.  Last Sunday Team Spode hit their usual raids and group instances, and my DPS was up! After thinking about that a bit, the only thing I can really attribute to that being up was that I was able to raise the level of two of my three trinkets. Being able to keep up with Spode in DPS despite him outpacing me by 75-100 Skill Points is kind of encouraging.

I'm using a sorcery build that's highly focused on amplifying my fury pet's damage and building supercharge, and I've been pretty happy with the results. (You know how I love my pet classes in MMOs.) The real power has come from coupling the Fury Pet with the Source Shard Artifact's Godwave Strength skill.  When that happens, my Fury becomes super charged and lands a huge series of hits, with one of those in particular hitting over 100k.

Me-wow!

Taking a big chunk of time off from playing DCUO (what's a 3-4 year break anyway?) got me a fair bit behind the rest of Team Spode, and especially when it comes to leveling trinkets and skill points.  The only way to level trinkets is to power them up with something called Nth Metal. The first 80 levels of a trinket kind of sail by, but when your trinket gets above level 120, things slow waaaaaaay down, and it's easy to tell that this is one of DCUO's major monetization legs for the game.

So, let's break down the ways to get Nth metal.

1- Probably the number one thing you can do when you log into DCUO daily is hit that stupid Vault instance that's been in game forever.  At the end of the run, you'll typically receive a rarer piece of Nth metal worth a bunch of trinket exp.  

2- If you have Nth metal detectors and know you're going to play the game for at least an hour, pop it and for the next hour your Nth metal finds will be up and you can also get your hands on Nth metal caches that can contain 3 pieces of Nth metal each.  You'll typically find anywhere between 3 and 6 Nth metal caches per hour with an Nth metal detector running.

3- Just play the game. Nth metal naturally drops from mobs that you outright defeat (not the mobs where you have to click on them to capture them), so farming "defeatable mobs" is your best bet for farming.

4- Buy booster packs of Nth metal in the store. Yup, it's pay to win, but if you want to drop $100 on Nth metal, you certainly can and will (if you're hungry for artifact exp).  

5- Buy Nth metal caches off of players in the auction house. Um, this is super not worth it . . . gonna be honest. The metal to money ratio is pretty bad. One cache for 2-4 million game cash? I'd rather spend my in game money in other ways, but to each their own.

So my Soul Shard artifact is currently at level 150.  When I get it up to level 160, 25% of the time, using a superpower will instantly refresh my Godwave Strength ability from the shard, and my DPS will jump . . . and it'll be awesome and fun. I can't wait for that to happen. When it does, I might just make Lord Spode jealous of my DPS once again.

Soul Shard at level 150

One thing is for sure . . . no way I'm dropping $100 real cash on Nth metal.  It's the farming life for me.

. . . or perhaps if I really want to DPS, maybe switch builds to Munitions Skill instead of Sorcery?  Nah, I love my Fury pet too much.

Happy Dueling

Of Hades and the Drama Gods

Our company held a fun day on Friday where they gave each of us a $25 grub hub card and $25 to spend on any game of our choosing. Then all the employees chilled, played games, and chatted over Teams for the day, and that's about as crazy as it gets in the virtual office with everyone still working from home.

The grub I chose was a Seared Ahi Tuna Salad. The game I chose to get was Hades, which came out last year and won a ton of awards. There for a while I couldn't go a day without someone somewhere raving about the game, so it was kind of a no brainer that I try this one out.  After all, I love isometric dungeon crawls! Honestly, I can't believe it took me this long to pick it up.

In this game, you die . . . a lot . . . and you're meant to die.  It's ok, because you're an immortal prince of the underworld named Zagreus who just resurrects in a pool of blood after each defeat, and, well, Hades is your father, whom you dislike greatly. Greek mythology, so full of drama!

Oh, it's a twisted family drama all right.

As for game mechanics, the dungeon is really just a series of locked rooms connected together by doors. As you play you're powered up methodically (Archero style: where you choose one of three power-ups to give your character) and try to build synergies with your powers and weapon type. Each time you die, you spend currencies picked up from your previous run to gain permanent power and unlock more and more story. 

Gathering Chthonic Keys is the key to your growth!

The resulting game is a dungeon crawler with a lot of replay-ability because you realize that each time you play through this maze of death, it'll be a slightly different experience while still being the same core game. It's quite ingenious while also being quite fun, and that's the magic formula for winning a ton of awards.

Dashing against death

After the weekend here, I've been able to make it to the second boss now and have beaten Megaerya (or one of her crazy fury sisters) with the shield, bow, fist weapon, and adamant rail gun . . . and that's also important! You're not just beating the boss once and done, but you're also beating the boss with each of the weapon types.

One of Meg's crazy fury sisters . . .

I'm having a lot of fun with the game so far and starting to gain a bit more strategy to my play aside from button mashing.  I have to say that I wish I would have picked this game up on a console instead of the computer to be honest. This one feels like it'd play better with a controller.  Hmm, speaking of which, maybe this is a good reason to finally hook up a controller to the PC.  YEAH! I'll have to do that!

Happy Dueling

Of Dinosaurs and Trolls: Gettin' Gobbolicious with it

I spent a bit more time playing World of Warcraft the past week, and I have to say that I had a pretty good time doing it. I never really experienced the horde side of the house, and I think that made it all the more fun.  That, plus, this new (to me) troll city of Zuldazar on the isle of Zandalar is super impressive.

It be da king man!

It's a sprawling ziggurat maze that feels alive and bustling where troll and dinosaur mingle in the best of ways. The quests found here are really different and interesting. One had me sneaking around as a velociraptor trying not to get caught by guards and spiders.  Another had me selecting a kind of soul beast to help me run around the city. A couple of them even had me playing a strange top down mini-game where you led a turtle through a maze.

Not that difficult, but definitely different from your standard quest.

One of my favorite quests happened outside of the city where two researchers were trying to pair up a couple of on-the-verge of extinction dinosaurs. One was using science methods and the other was using that good old fashioned voodoo.  Eventually through the quest they decided to pair their powers together and concocted a brew that made those dinosaurs feel the love for each other in all the right ways.

Aww!  It's a perfect Valentine's Day quest! If only it was Valentine's Day.

I was able to meet up with my friends Beau and Leala a couple of times and hit up voice chat while playing. A couple of times I got super disoriented and lost my way.  Once because I actually had to follow an NPC and didn't click on him.  Another time because I chose a different spirit dinosaur than Beau and Leala. Whoops.

I kept finding myself wanting to log on and play more during the week, and leveling just happened blindingly fast compared to how it used to be in Vanilla WoW.  All it took was a little bit of dinosaur hunting on the side and before you know it, I was level 20 and in need of making a decision.  Do I bite the bullet and subscribe or wait?  

The Spawn of Gahz'rilla compels you to subscribe!

Honestly, I'm feeling the pull to subscribe.  I love the new WoW.  Gobbolicious had 4 mounts to choose from by the end of my experience.  He also was running around with a literal army of imps and demons and was able to down bosses in the world while solo.

For my horde!

One thing he wasn't able to do solo . . . the dungeons, and, I mean, that's to be expected.  That's also to be appreciated.  That's what makes WoW a solid MMO.  All in all, I'm quite impressed with what WoW has done over the years.  There's a lot of interesting game tech behind it, and you just don't see that update and change as much in other games. 

It remains to be seen if I'll sub, but if the intro experience is an indication of the rest of the game, it'll be money well spent and a joy to play through.

Happy Dueling

MMO Brain Dump 5/25/2021

Just wanted to get a few things out of my brain that have been rolling around inside it, and for some reason I'm feeling the drive to write more, so I might as well go for it. You know?

~~

1- SOLO -- I've been hearing a lot about Swords of Legends Online . . . FROM MY WIFE of all people.  One of her friends was streaming game play from the Beta and she seemed super interested. Honestly, I'm a bit nervous when I look at the graphics that I'd probably need an upgrade to my computer to really play it well.

My gut wants to label it as Guild Wars 2 that's deeply based in Chinese mythology, but you never know with a game like this until you play it. It's due out some time this summer, so I'm sure we'll be hearing more about it.

~~

2- WoW -- I've jumped in and started a new character Horde side because guess who else also got interested in the game lately . . . Beau and Leala! My old partners in crime from the Overwatch Potato League. Thus Gobbolicious was born!

trike mount ftw

So there you go. I've got someone new to hang out with in WoW for a bit. Should be fun exploring the game with them. I'm all about replacing those old bad memories with some good ones.

~~

3- Wizard101 -- There's a new pack that features a itty bitty streetcar mount, a blimp pet, and all the various clothes you'd find on The Art of Warlord's OC (as I teased them about yesterday).

My boi Blaze Lifehammer did a great video pack opening and seemed less than pleased. I'm always entertained by watching pack openings like this.

The three items that appeal to me here are the tiny streetcar, the blimp, and the hairstyle. 

~~

4- DCUO -- Y'all . . . I'm right on the cusp of getting that chroma pack . . . 99/100 seed pods.  Thank goodness I still have tomorrow morning to finish this up.

I cri everytime . . .

~~

5- Project Gorgon -- whoa whoa whoa . . . they're adding a subscription to Project Gorgon?! To be honest, adding VIP is something they've batted around for a while now. It's kind of cool to see it finally come to fruition.  Good for them!

The extra bag space sounds so nice. I'm such a hoarder when it comes to MMOs that, honestly I'd probably do it just for the bag space alone.  Although the neat .csv exports of data is pretty cool and the ability to level skills while not being logged in sounds fantastic right about now.  I haven't logged in to the game in forever, so building up the hammer skill without all the grinding sounds fantastic.

~~

That's it. Just a few thoughts I wanted to brain dump out there into the void. Lemme know what you've been thinking about in the MMO world!  I'd love to hear from you.

Happy Dueling!

Ding 135 -- Nana is Watching . . . Chezz's Videos

 Uber Wife and I returned from a months long break from the main quest line last night to put in a couple hours of Wizard101. What we discovered was the sad truth about Nana.

Nana! How could you?!

Nana was pretty upset that we were going around with Greta shutting down factories and causing problems for her. So much so that we had to give her the Baily Bull treatment.

Two fiercer creatures have never faced off against each other

It was a great time fighting everything from Chocolate moose to Peach Gobblers. Our favorite moment was when we had to collect "sugar dandruff" from a heard of sour patch goats because of course it's not powdered sugar, it's sugar dandruff!

Tempest-casting sour patch goats, who would have guessed.

I think what spurred us on was the knowledge that there's another quest for the next world already out there available to play. (Thanks to Blaze Lifehammer for sharing that quest walk through the other day.) It was a big realization about exactly how out of the loop I am on Wizard101 information lately.

Speaking of Wizard101 Information, Chezz is BACK AT IT?!?! Last week was fun to watch unfold when he started dropping songs about each of the starting worlds. It's a huge comeback from when he dropped that Avalon song back in 2013.  That was peak Wizard101, yo. 

If you haven't checked out his videos, give 'em a shot: 

Then . . . later today he'll be premiering the Mooshu song at 1pm central.  You know I'll be there watching! 

I love the positive vibes going on in Wizard101 lately.

Happy Dueling!

Experiencing Exile's Reach--Attack of the Ogre Necromancer

 I didn't even know that a new tutorial experience was included with the latest Shadowlands Update to World of Warcraft.  (It's not too surprising since I like never play WoW.)  I was doing a bit of whining on Twitter last night about how WoW felt like abandonment every time I logged on because my friend who got me into the game sold his account. (This isn't the first time I've whined about it.)

Because of that I started thinking about my whole WoW experience and the things I liked or didn't like about it. I also had chosen to play a Paladin because my friend recommended it, and while I enjoyed it, I also hated it. I hated my role in raids mostly.

So last night I started thinking about how the class I personally would have chosen would have probably been a hunter or a warlock. I've already played a hunter several times, but never a warlock. Because of that, I logged on and made a new character called "Thefn" short for The Friendly Necromancer.

I'm loving the 100% Right Slider look

When I saw the new tutorial experience as an option, I was pleasantly surprised. Even better was how fast those 10 levels soared by and how good the game still feels when you play it.

It did expose the class and race I'd like to play most, however.  An Ogre necromancer sounds perfect, thanks.

Yes, please

Just imagine you're dragging around a bunch of skeletons and zombies on those chains and throwing them into combat. I'd play that class in a heartbeat.

I actually kind of groaned a bit when the tutorial's ultimate battle was with a dragon at the top of a climb. It felt very cliché to be honest. Didn't we do this exact same thing in Rift's tutorial?

Thanks for explaining why I'm able to take this thing down as a level 10 warlock

I guess I shouldn't complain . . . it did feel pretty epic. In fact, everything leading up to that point felt pretty great too. The spider cave adventure was great. The Harpy hunting was exactly the type of quest you'd find throughout the world. The giant bear boss fight felt dangerous and profitable. Creating a giant boar to trample a hoard of troops felt great. 

Hanging by a rope over a giant crowd of nope

Overall it was exactly what I'd want to experience in an hour or so of World of Warcraft. As tempted as I am to subscribe after that great experience. I'm afraid the follow on experience probably won't be as much fun. Plus I've just got so many other games to play. Hmmm.

Happy Dueling!

My Hero Academia Mobile MMO -- Let's go Strongest Hero!

So, maybe 2 or 3 years ago, my friend Andrew from work started talking up My Hero Academia to me, and I decided to start watching the anime. Now I'm right here with the best of them, wearing the merchandise and subscribed to Funimation to watch the current season unfold in its subtitled goodness.

A couple days ago I heard about the launch of a new mobile game title for My Hero Academia that actually got me pretty excited. My Hero Academia: The Strongest Hero is a free to play mobile game that bills itself as an Action MMORPG. That's a perfect storm for me, so I naturally downloaded the game.

You know you're in trouble when you start to screenshot the loading screen.

So, just to be clear, you know how these games work, right? It's free to play to get you in and they shower you with tons of currency and get you solidly hooked on the game, then the faucet begins to dry up right when you start to feel committed to the game.  It's also a gacha game, so you'll want to summon heroes constantly.  Once you get over that mental hurdle and know that those things are eventually going to stop you, you'll be fine.

When you pull that S rank Todoroki though . . .

I'm two days in and so far, it's been absolutely worth the free download, so let's talk core gameplay. Everything revolves around completing quests. Quests lead to combat. Combat leads to rewards, rewards lead to gearing up and leveling. Gearing up and leveling allows you to go further into completing quests. Per typical mobile game loop fashion, as you spin around this loop a few times, new modes begin to unlock to give you more depth in the game.

The game slowly unlocks pvp, guilds, co-op modes, daily quests, gear progression, and a ton of reward tracks.  If you've played a 4x game like Rise of Kingdoms, you'll know what I'm talking about with reward tracks. Basically, you play follow the red dot around the UI menu collecting reward after reward for simply playing the game. These rewards are the fuel you'll need to level your characters and progress in the game.

The main quests are mostly to do with combat, but be on the lookout for side quests, which seem to have a bit more variety and flair to them. My favorite side quest so far had me running an investigation into a robbery at a local restaurant.

The clerk got busted for stealing a recipe from the owner -- THE SHAME!

Another side quest had me helping a store owner who lost his cat mascot. A daily quest had me picking up trash. All in all those are pretty standard fare, but they do break up the combat.

Not that breaking up the combat is necessarily needed.  I have to say that the combat in this game is actually quite good. If you like button mashing and combo building as you work your way up to launching ultimate moves, you're going to like the way combat feels in MHA Strongest Hero.

Ultimate moves are so much fun

The villains that you fight come in waves and eventually you'll be bringing three of your favorite heroes into combat to take out several waves of combat that culminate in a boss fight.  The great thing here is that the enemies are everything you've come to expect from My Hero Academia.  They are goofy and cool at the same time. I love the absurdity and charm of this universe and it all carries over nicely from the anime.

Punch him after he charges . . . got it . . .

One of the layers you unlock has to do with playing through highlights from the story of the anime itself. Currently I'm helping Midoriya clean up the beach so he can convince All Might to give him his quirk.

Running through the junk

This involves a fun little mini-game of swiping and timing taps, which helps to break up the main game progression.

Is it an MMO though?  Well, I suppose you can see other players in the city section and do a nice co-op mode to play with other heroes, but for the most part this feels like a solo player's game.  I guess it'd be hailing back to some of the old arguments we all had back when the first Guild Wars game was being debated as an MMO.  There definitely is global chat, guilds, and you see other player's avatars around in game, so . . . there's that at least.

All in all, I'm enjoying myself so far. I never played any of the One's Justice console fighting games for the Anime, so this is my first "game" experience with the franchise. If you're playing the game or have some additional insights to share, feel free to leave me a comment and say hello.

Happy Dueling!